The finance sector spent $719 million on politics in 2017, according to a report released Monday by the reformist group Americans for Financial Reform.
That figure includes not just official lobbying but also political contributions by individuals, companies and trade groups, giving a broader picture of how much banks, insurers, and real estate interests are giving to influence politics.
The roughly $2 million-a-day spending puts the finance sector on pace to break its record of $2 billion spent during the 2015-2016 cycle, according to the left-of-center group.
“Year after year, big money in politics helps Wall Street rig the system in its own favor, and against the rest of us, even though voters oppose the policies it seeks,” said Lisa Donner, Americans for Financial Reform’s executive director.
The numbers are based on a special data set put together by the Center for Responsive Politics.
The numbers show that the finance industry outspends all others on campaign contributions, with $246,373,619 given in 2017. It is second only to healthcare when it comes to lobbying, spending $472,618,066 on more than 2,000 registered lobbyists.
The single biggest spender was the National Association of Realtors, with a combined $57,269,793 in political giving. The American Bankers Association and Prudential rounded out the top three.
Speaker Paul Ryan was the top recipient of funding in the House. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat at risk in the 2018 midterms, was the top recipient in the Senate.
Altogether, 60 percent of finance-industry funding went to Republicans, and 40 percent to Democrats.
While the dataset captures many kinds of political spending and registered lobbying, it understates actual influence spending. For example, it doesn’t include some industry spending on public relations, nonprofits and other forms of political influence that are significant in Washington.
